William’s daughter, Elizabeth or Lizzie Houston, who was married to Archibald Torrance gave birth to a boy on 28 Jan 1894. She named him Oliver McLeod Houston Torrance, presumably after her deceased younger brother. Tragically she died of tubercula diarrhea just six months later on 28 Jul 1894. Just days after Oliver’s death another tragedy occurred involving William Houston. On 18 Jun 1888 at Hurlford No 18 Pit, Thomas Woods, a miner aged 27 fell after his hutch down the shaft from an unfenced midworking. From the main body of the report into the incident: Happened to a miner who pushed his hutch at a mid-working into the shaft when the cage was not there, and fell with it to the bottom; The entrance to the shaft was not fenced in terms of General Rule 19, and for this offence proceedings were taken against both the manager and the overman, who were fined for their negligence. William Houston was the oversman. Contraventions of the Coal Mines Regulation Act - from The Ayrshire Post At the Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday, Thos. Falconer, colliery manager, residing in Hill Street, was charged with a contravention of rule 19 under the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872, in so far as being manager of No 18 Pit Hurlford Colliery, belonging to Messrs Merry & Cuninghame, on the 18th June last he failed to fence the entrance to the shaft from the major seam, whereby he was liable to the restricted penalty of £10, or 60 days imprisonment. The accused pleaded guilty. The Fiscal stated that in consequence of this neglect a hutch* had gone over and a man lost his life. Falconer was charged with another breach of the Act on the same occasion by having failed to appoint a bottomer** for the main seam of the pit to perform the duties of the special rules 42 and 51. To this he pleaded not guilty, on the ground that he had appointed a contractor to drive the mine between the two seams, and instructed him to discharge the duties of the bottomer. After hearing evidence, the Sheriff found the charge proven, though he did not regard it as a serious offence. Falconer explained that, though he had pleaded guilty to the first offence, he had repeatedly urged the oversman to get a fence erected, but his orders had been neglected. The Sheriff said he must be held responsible for the orders not being carried out, and imposed a penalty of £5, with the alternative of 21 days’ imprisonment. In the other case an admonition only was inflicted. - William Houston, oversman in the pit in question, and residing in Colliery Row, Hurlford, pleaded guilty to having failed to fence the entrance to the shaft from the main seam, in contravention of general rule 19, and was fined in £2, with the alternative of 21 days’ imprisonment. Houston had a son killed in an adjoining pit only a few days before the accident in his own pit. * A mining hutch is a small, box-like wheeled truck or car used to transport coal or ore from the working face to the surface or pit bottom. Primarily used in Scottish mining, these carts run on designated tracks called "hutch-roads," replacing older basket or sledge transport methods. ** A bottomer was in charge of loading hutches into the cage at the bottom of a mine shaft and signalling for the cage to be hoisted up the shaft to the surface. William Houston continued to work as the colliery oversman as evidenced by the 1891 Census.